Cell Phone on Lincoln Road

Though I used a cell phone myself, I did not broadcast my conversations and had very little tolerance for those who did until I overheard a young man on Lincoln Road in South Beach.  He was a few steps in front of us, as John and I walked on the south side of Lincoln Road, across from Books on Books.  'He's there, he's there,' the man said.  I looked toward where he was looking: a handsome man sat reading  in full view at a table in the large window of the bookstore's cafe.  The man on the cell phone was trying to get up his courage to meet the man.  He was very nervous and kept asking for reassurance.  'Yes, but,' he kept saying, astonished that the man had shown up.  He backed away from the store; the man in the window did not look up from his book.  The cell phone conversation went on, the person on the other end apparently persisting, encouraging.

We passed the young man and made the circuit of Lincoln Road Mall--past the Van Dyke, past the ice cream place on the corner of Meridian, past the Community Church--and then crossed over to the north side of the mall and walked west toward Books and Books.  By this time it was twilight.  There in the lighted window were the two men, talking to each other across the table.